Here’s a look (with links in some cases) to some of the events from a very busy Friday for local university teams:

CANADA WEST SOCCER FINAL FOURS FINISH WITH MARATHON KICKS

Huh? Two teams win the biggest games of their respective seasons by going to penalty kicks, where each emerges a 9-8 winner in the shootout?

That’s just what happened on Friday.

At the Canada West men’s Final Four at the University of Alberta, the Spartans men’s won 3-2 (9-8 kicks) over Calgary. It’s a victory that sends TWU into the conference semifinal today where Canada West Coach of the Year Pat Rohla leads his bunch against the host Golden Bears. The winner of that game, and the other semifinal today between UBC and Saskatchewan (a 1-0 winner over defending CIS champ Victoria on Friday), will meet Sunday for the conference crown.

But the big one is today. Win, and you’re off to the CIS nationals.

At the Canada West women’s Final Four at Trinity Western, the host and No. 2-ranked Spartan women got second-half goals from Natalie Boyd and Alicia Tesan to beat Regina 2-0 and earn a berth to the CIS nationals. The Spartans will face Victoria, a 1-0 (9-8 kicks) winner over arch-rival UBC. The victory gives the Vikes their ticket to the CIS tournament and a 6 pm date tonight at Rogers Field in Langley against the hosts for the conference title.

UBC V. TRINITY MEN’S HOOPS ALWAYS AN EVENT

O’Brian Wallace may have been more used to playing the role of character actor, but when the 2012-13 CIS campaign opened on the road in Langley, and the rival Trinity Western Spartans were the ones trying to pull the upset, he stepped out like a leading man.

The shooting guard Wallace, who two seasons ago led Brandon in scoring while coming off the bench, dropped a game-high 34 points, off-setting a sizzling debut by TWU newcomer Mark Perrin (32 points, 7 treys) and carrying the ‘Birds to a 91-84 win.

The two teams meet again tonight (7 p.m.) at the Langley Events Centre.

Wallace dropped five triples and led the team in rebounding with nine. Doug Plumb had 22, and Isaiah Solomon, the pure freshman making his CIS debut, including making 14-of-18 from the free throw line.

Perrin also grabbed nine boards to lead the Spartans while former WRCA prep star Tonner Jackson, back from a season away, had 20 points, five rebounds and four steals.

As well, here’s the commnets of SFU head coach James Blake to Utes sports information after the game:

“I thought [Utah’s] physicality took us out of the game right off the bat. It didn’t help that the officials let them do whatever they wanted to us, which is a little disappointing. We really wanted to give them a better opportunity to guard posts and basically our posts were fouled out the entire game and frustrated. [Utah] was able to hammer on them the entire game. I don’t know how much either team got out of this. I don’t think they got much out of it and we definitely didn’t get much out of it. So it’s a little bit frustrating from that side of it.”

“It’s always a pleasure to come down here and play these teams. The kids are always really excited to play. But when the kids are putting forth effort and I think playing really well but still aren’t getting the benefits from doing it is a little disappointing. I thought to hold a Pac-12 team to below 70 points, that was really our goal I just didn’t expect them to be so physical and be able to hand check us. There was almost two fights break out and that should never happen. That is the way they called the game and we had to adjust to it and we didn’t. So again, a little bit frustrating but they are a lot better than they were last year.”

“We watched [Utah] on tape from last year and going into this game they have some new, good pieces and some great size. I think they are going to be pretty good this year and surprise some people in the Pac-12. I definitely don’t think they are last place, I would say more middle of the pack. It will be interesting to watch them grow this year.”

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Head of the Class 2014

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